My (Ithiel Egambaram) experience as an intern at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), has been enjoyable and enriching. IRC responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.
As an intern at IRC, I assist my assigned country teams with the development of their Strategy Action Plan (SAP). I have been assigned to the following countries: Niger, Cameroon, South Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria and Yemen.
The assistance that I provide to each country team differs and depends on the needs. For example, Niger asked me to do research on donor strategies, while Cameroon asked me to research on migration trends in Cameroon and analyze the government youth operational plan. The research that I am doing at IRC is very interesting to me as I am passionate about economic development.
I (Ellie Bauer) also was an intern at the IRC this summer. I supported the Somalia, Afghanistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Pakistan teams. I did secondary data research by reading through other organizations’ (such as UNICEF, the World Bank, APACS, etc.) publications and summarizing it in an easy-to-read table. This data, as well as primary data gathered by the country teams, was synthesized as a group to create the final SAP. Throughout the summer I learned so much about each country’s crisis, culture, and current affairs, which was both interesting and enriching.
I learned a lot about how conflict, displacement, climate change, and cultural norms affect access to health services, which will be valuable in my future career in health development.
I (Giselle Schmitz) was also an intern for the IRC this summer supporting the teams for Cote D’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mali. My role was very similar to both Ellie and Ithiel, I performed desk research focusing on active crises, summarized existing data and reports from internal IRC and in-country sources, and generated donor strategy reports focusing on country and crisis-specific concerns.
The experience of desk research across a broad range of topics was valuable in honing my research skills. I especially appreciated the opportunity to practice French language skills in a professional setting through document review and in meetings. In-country teams were unfailingly patient and generous as I practiced and, hopefully, improved throughout the internship.